UN Worried Over Pakistan 'Rights Abuses'

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The United Nations has voiced concern over allegations of "very grave" rights violations and forced disappearances during Pakistani military operations against insurgents and militants. At the end of her four-day visit to the country on May 7, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said that she is concerned about allegations of grave abuses in the context of counterterrorist and counterinsurgency operations. She told journalists in Islamabad that such abuses "include extrajudicial killings, unacknowledged detention and enforced disappearances." Independent watchdogs have accused Pakistani security forces of mass arrests and extra-judicial killings in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where a separatist insurgency began in the in 2004. Pillay urged Islamabad to pass legislation on crucial issues such as torture, education, and women’s rights.